How did bacon Become ??

I’ve always been one to question the origins of certain things, like, who would ever think that green plant thing in the ground would have a root on it that was orange, and edible ?? or the other green plant over there somewhere would become a staple in our diets throughout history, the humble potato !!

So, since I have joined Bacon Towers, I’ve been increasingly finding myself asking, why would anyone, way back when, think that rubbing some salt onto a bit of pork and leaving it to dry out give you the most delicious bacon ?? Well it was in fact the Chinese, dating back to 1500BC, they used to rub salt into pork giving them the most basic form of bacon.

So, I thought I’d dig a little further and found these interesting facts …………..

“Bacon” was a middle english term referring to pork in general, derived from French (bako) and old high german (bakko) meaning back.

We have all heard the phrase “Bring home the bacon” but did you know that the phrase originated from a 12th century church in Dunmow where a “Filtch” (side) of bacon was offered to any man who swore before God and the congregation that he had not fought or argued with his wife for a year and a day. I don’t know about you but my husband defiantly wouldn’t be bringing home any bacon !!

The good old English bacon tradition can be dated as far back as the saxon era when us Brits used to breed pigs for bacon. Each family used to have it’s own curing and smoking recipe which in turn gave a huge variety of flavours across Britain. If you were lucky enough to live in Hertford at the time, you would have access to a wide variety of different bacon flavours and other produce. Hertford used to be a fortified Saxon town and was a major market place for agricultural produce, mainly because of it’s proximity to London, but also because of the 4 rivers that meet there.

Before the Industrial revolution, bacon was traditionally produced on local farms and at home by your own family as a large percentage of people kept pigs, even in cities where they were kept in the basement !!! So up until the 19th century almost all bacon was cured in the old fashioned dry cured method, by rubbing salt into the meat by hand before being cured and smoked or dried. This process needed more labour and time than commercially produced bacon.

And this is where we come into it !!

We’ve taken our bacon back in time to give you the very best of traditional techniques with our unique modern twist. Bacon by post instead of bacon at the market.